scholarly journals Lawyers as Quasi-Public Actors

2008 ◽  
pp. 83 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Bradley Wendel
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Professional Conduct ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Disciplinary Process ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
Political Realities

American lawyers are often conceived of as agents of the client (mere hired guns or mouthpieces for their client) who can select specific categories of clients at their discretion. However, the law governing lawyers as a whole is not purely private in nature as it does place some public duties on lawyers. An example of this is the rule in the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct that imposes a duty on lawyers to provide pro bono legal services to those who need it. Although this duty is not enforceable through the disciplinary process, this responsibility will nevertheless continue to fall on individual lawyers due to the political realities in the United States. The author provides a justification for this unenforceable requirement by conceptualizing lawyers as quasi-public officials, thereby imbuing the lawyer’s role with responsibilities to both the client and to the legal system. Rather than being soley private actors, lawyers have a duty to act in the interests of justice, thereby ensuring “access to justice.”

C. K. Rowley, The Right to Justice – The Political Economy of Legal Services in the United States

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-196
Author(s):  
Domenico da Empoli
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
The Right ◽  
Edward Elgar

Abstract C. K. Rowley, The Right to Justice - The Political Economy of Legal Services in the United States, The Locke Institute, Brookfield, Edward Elgar, 1992, pp. 413, US$ 49,00.

The Conceptualisation of Pro Bono in Singapore

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 97-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Whalen-Bridge
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Over Time

Abstract“Pro bono” is a familiar phrase in North American jurisdictions that generally refers to a lawyer’s provision of free legal services to indigent persons. The phrase “pro bono” has also come to imply a particular approach to a lawyer’s relationship to indigent persons, one that stresses the obligatory as opposed to the charitable nature of the services provided. To what extent has this phrase, and its conceptualisation of a lawyer’s role, been used in Asian jurisdictions? This article examines how one Asian jurisdiction, Singapore, conceptualises a lawyer’s relationship to indigent persons by examining newspaper usage of phrases describing legal services for indigent persons. The article argues that changes in usage over time, from free legal services and legal aid to inclusion of pro bono, coupled with increased discussions of access to justice, represent a shift to a more obligatory concept of indigent legal services. An obligatory conceptualisation potentially exerts greater pressure on lawyers to provide indigent legal services, but can also exert pressure to revise the historical lack of broad-based government funded criminal legal aid in Singapore.

scholarly journals Recent Developments in the Provision of Pro Bono Legal Services by Attorneys in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Dave Holness
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Private Practice ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
The Status ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Recent Developments

This paper focuses on legal service delivery for the indigent by attorneys in private practice acting pro bono in civil rather than criminal matters.  In this regard there have been and continue to be considerable gaps between the proper access to civil justice imperatives of constitutional South Africa and the status quo which has existed from the advent of a democratic South Africa until the present. Law as a vehicle for necessary positive change in the daily lives of South African residents is pertinently considered within the country’s woefully unequal socio-economic climate. This paper considers the role which pro bono work by private attorneys is playing and should play in promoting a more just and equitable society through proper access to justice. It explores the current position in South Africa as well as the position in selected foreign jurisdictions regarding pro bono services by attorneys in private practice in civil matters. Part of the discussion focuses on the question of whether pro bono work should be voluntary or mandatory. The merits of introducing a pro bono obligation are critically analysed by looking at the effect on both legal practitioners as well as those receiving the pro bono services. Having defined pro bono work, the practical need for pro bono work by lawyers in private practice is highlighted due to the dearth of legal aid in civil matters for indigent South Africans. Possible constitutional imperatives for the provision of free legal services in civil matters are highlighted. An important part of the paper is a reflection on some of the pro bono work being conducted by private firms of attorneys.  The paper concludes with suggestions on means for establishing a more effective pro bono system in South Africa.

scholarly journals POLITICAL REALITIES OF THE COMMON REALITY AND THEIR REFLECTION IN THE PROSE OF V. AKSENOV AND S. DOVLATOV

2021 ◽  
Vol 02 (06) ◽  
pp. 130-138
Author(s):  
A. V. Sharavin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
The West ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Common ◽  
Professional Writers ◽  
Political Realities

The article compares the memoirs of dissidents and the prose of V. Aksenov and S. Dovlatov (books "In Search of a Sad Baby", "Craft", "Suitcase"). There is a difference in approaches to the creation of texts. In the memoirs of dissidents, the political and ideological aspects of emigration are reproduced, the stages of departure are described in detail. In the prose of the writers of the third wave, the image of the artist of the word, an exile, forcibly separated from his homeland, is comprehended. V. Aksenov and S. Dovlatov follow the tradition that has developed in literature - images of the power / poet opposition. Writers, like immigrants who are not professional writers, do not strive to document all the nuances of going to the West, their goal is to go beyond comprehending only the socio-political aspects of going abroad. Writers solve aesthetic problems, political realities for them are only a reflection of the entourage of external circumstances. Thus, V. Aksenov establishes successive ties between the creators of the "Silver Age" and the artists of the third wave of words. For the autobiographical hero S. Dovlatov, expulsion from the USSR and "relocation" to the United States is an opportunity to realize himself as a person freed from the ideological component, to comprehend the "particularity" of his existence.

scholarly journals Pro Bono: What's in it for law students? The students' perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Paul McKeown
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Student Participation ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Influential Factor ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Pro Bono

<p>In England and Wales, there is an increasing need for the provision of pro bono legal services.  Law students may be a resource that can help fill the access to justice gap, whilst at university and onwards in their future careers.  Whilst some students are intrinsically motivated towards altruistic behaviour, many are not.  This article will consider what motivates students to undertake pro bono work whilst at law school.</p><p>The article will explore the range of intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors for student participation in pro bono programmes and consider how students can be encouraged to engage in such activities.  The article will also consider whether exposure to pro bono experience can instil a public service ethos in students.</p>In conclusion, the article will highlight experience as an influential factor in encouraging initial participation in pro bono work but also instilling a willingness to undertake pro bono work in the future.

scholarly journals Blurred Responsibilities of Disaster Governance: The American Red Cross in the US and Haiti

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-342
Author(s):  
Eija Meriläinen ◽  
Jukka Mäkinen ◽  
Nikodemus Solitander
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
The Political ◽  
American Red Cross ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
Governance Arrangements

The influence of private actors, such as non-profit organizations (NPOs) and firms, has been increasing in disaster governance. Previous literature has interrogated the responsibilities of states towards citizens in disasters, but the roles of private actors have been insufficiently challenged. The article politicizes the entangled relations between NPOs, states, and disaster-affected people. It proposes the Rawlsian division of moral labor as a useful, normative framework for interrogating the justice of disaster governance arrangements in which ‘liberal’ states are involved. Liberal states have two types of responsibilities in disasters: humanitarian and political. The humanitarian responsibilities imply provision of basic resources needed for the capacity to make autonomous choices (domestically and abroad), while the political responsibilities imply provision of the institutions needed for the liberal democratic citizenship (domestically). Through this analytical lens and building on the wealth of existing scholarship, we illustrate the disaster governance role of the American Red Cross in the United States (a 2005 hurricane) and in Haiti (the 2010 earthquake). Where, in Rawlsian terms, United States is interpreted as a ‘liberal’ society, Haiti is framed as a ‘burdened’ society. The article proposes five points to consider in analyzing disaster governance arrangements under neoliberal regimes, structured around the division of humanitarian and political responsibilities. The article illustrates how NPOS are instrumental in blurring the boundaries between humanitarian and political responsibilities. This might result ultimately in actual vulnerabilities remaining unaddressed. While the Rawlsian approach challenges the privatization and lack of coordination in disaster governance, it is limited in analyzing the political construction of ‘burdened’ societies.

“The Finest Ambassadors”

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
George N. Kioussis
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
American Military ◽  
Global Game ◽  
National Team ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Soccer Team ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
Unique Ability

In 1955, the US national soccer team landed at the Keflavik airport in Iceland for a government-sponsored three-match tour for the purposes of building goodwill. The exchange occurred as Icelandic public opinion mounted against the American military presence at Keflavik. With this tour, and a subsequent return tour of the Icelandic national team to the United States the following year, Washington used soccer to deal with the Keflavik situation specifically and the political realities of the region more broadly. The global game possessed a unique ability to cut across political lines, as evidenced in how the tours were mediated by Icelandic newspapers of varying political persuasion. It also explores how strategic mishaps—at the level of both federal and sport governance—were not enough to sully the goodwill-building potential of the venture on the whole.

Circulations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Boyce Davies
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Black Activism ◽  
Anglophone Caribbean ◽  
Pan African ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The U.S

This chapter engages some of the political realities of living as a Caribbean person in the United States. It examines the movements of some of the most visibly representative figures largely from the Anglophone Caribbean, from the formative period of black activism leading up to the Black Power period of the 1970s. In pursuing earlier work on Claudia Jones that focused largely on the 1930s—1950s, the author was able to see some patterns emerging in the surrounding intellectuals and activists with whom Jones' work intersected and intersects, that is, the African American activists in the U.S. context and the larger Caribbean and Pan-African and international contexts. Jones' Caribbean left politics addresses the question of how to “remake” inherited political positions for usability in black communities.

scholarly journals AN ASSESSMENT OF THE FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING A PRO BONO CULTURE AMONG LEGAL PRACTITIONERS IN NIGERIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Ifeanyi Nnadi Henry, Esq. ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Administrative Framework

Pro bono legal services are professional services rendered by lawyers or other legal experts1 to indigent and disadvantaged litigants in the society for the public good id est, in order to promote a just and equitable society. It is a subset of the principle of equal access to justice and is based on the assumption that the poor requires but cannot access justice because they lack the financial means. Using the doctrinal approach, this discourse assesses the existing legal and administrative framework for pro bono engagement by lawyers in Nigeria with a view to identifying areas of improvement. Having identified possible areas of improvement, recommendations are proffered on legislative and administrative measures towards improving the level of engagement in pro bono legal services by legal practitioners in the country.

scholarly journals The Role of the Legal Services Corporation in Improving Access to Justice

Daedalus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Sandman
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Child Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Wage Theft ◽  
Legal Services Corporation ◽  
Mortgage Foreclosures ◽  
Aid Programs

The Legal Services Corporation is the United States' largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. The LSC funds legal-aid programs that serve households with annual incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline. Legal-aid clients face a wide variety of civil legal problems: wrongful evictions, mortgage foreclosures, domestic violence, wage theft, child custody and child support issues, and denial of essential benefits. This vital work is badly underfunded. The shortfall between the civil legal needs of low-income Americans and the resources available to address those needs is daunting. Federal funding is necessary because support for civil legal aid varies widely from state to state. The LSC uses the “justice gap” metaphor to describe the shortfall between legal needs and legal services. Narrowing the gap is central to the LSC's mission.

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